55-year-old Catherine Byrne enjoys some adventure on her holidays, as she did on her recent trip glacier walking in Iceland. But it’s important to her that she has full travel cover for these trips too…

“The trip was ideal, exhilarating without being too adventurous. I like to see the world, but I’m actually a bit of a worrier, and so was pleased it was a well-organised trip where we used professional equipment including crampons, harnesses and ice picks. There was a guide to help us navigate the crevices, so all in all it felt safe, yet breathtakingly extraordinary.”

As a self-confessed risk-averse worrier, travel insurance for this recent trip was a key priority. It was something she knew she needed to look into, as not only is the activity unusual, but also Catherine is in remission from Hodgkin Lymphoma, which means many insurance providers won’t cover her even for more straight-forward trips.

Since recovering from Hodgkin Lymphoma, Catherine has also been diagnosed with heart issues, including a leaky heart valve, arrhythmia and left ventricular dysfunction. Catherine therefore researched insurers that specialised in people with heart issues. She was recommended to try AllClear by a friend who’d been able to obtain travel insurance for her son who has an extremely complicated medical history.

AllClear was able to provide annual worldwide cover that includes the USA, renowned as the most expensive country to receive medical care and therefore the hardest to obtain cover for. It was important to Catherine as she has been to Hawaii before to hike and kayak around its waterfalls and would not want similar trips to be out of bounds.

Catherine did have to check that her new insurance with AllClear would cover Glacier Walking. Being so off piste – literally and metaphorically – it required a separate negotiation between AllClear and the underwriter to add glacier walking to her policy.

“It is so important to ask and double check the finite details of your policy, and to declare absolutely everything,” she explains. “My medical history does not stop me travelling the way I want to travel, and in reality there is only slim chance of something happening meaning I need medical attention. However, that slim chance could result in my footing the bill for tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“That’s not a risk I am willing to take, and am very pleased that I’ve been able to find cover that’ll take me to my next adventure.”

Chris Rolland, CEO at AllClear, said “Everyone deserves the right to travel and living with medical conditions doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy incredible holidays. We’re delighted we could help Catherine.”